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This article deals with two deuterocanonical texts (the Wisdom of Solomon and 1 Maccabees), in which the actions that God carries out at night are remarkable. The first divine act that will be examined is part of the reflection on the Passover night in the book of Wisdom. In Wisdom 17–19 the night is used in both real and metaphorical senses. The truth is that the night itself is powerless (17:13), for the whole world is shining with brilliant light (17:20). But the lawless are shackled by darkness and fettered by the long night (17:2). God’s rage is merciless, and the end of the godless, in concrete terms for the Egyptians, has been brought on by themselves (19:1). In contrast, God’s all-powerful logos leaps into the land of destruction to rescue his people (18:15). That happens at midnight (18:14), exactly at the point when night is turning into day. In accordance with tradition, God’s help may be expected at sunrise. In 1 Macc 13:22 Trypho’s cavalry is ready to conquer Jerusalem. But there is a heavy snowfall during the night so that his army cannot advance and is forced to leave. This natural wonder is presented as another indication of God’s nocturnal intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Second Maccabees is a literary collection that profiles Torah observance as the force which shapes Jewish history. The two introductory letters and the epitomist’s dramatic account of survival in the face of imperial tyranny beckon Jews from the diaspora to acknowledge the centrality of Jerusalem, its temple and the land of Israel to Jewish identity. Together these documents encourage Jews throughout Egypt to bond with their compatriots in Israel by joyously celebrating the eight-day festival of the temple cleansing in the month of Chislev and thereby renew their commitment to the ancestral traditions that define Judaism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Fifth Passover Cup is mentioned in a textual variant of a baraita in Tractate Pesaḥim of the Babylonian Talmud (118a), attributed to Rabbi Ṭarfon and another anonymous Palestinian tanna. Scholars have demonstrated that the variant is primary in talmudic manuscripts and among the Babylonian Geonim. Following a nineteenth-century proposition of Isaac Baer Levinsohn, it is argued that the fifth cup was instituted in Babylonia due to concern for magical evil spirits aroused by even-numbered events [ zugot ]. Objections to Levinsohn's theory can be allayed by critical source analysis: the Talmud's attribution of the fifth cup to the Palestinian tanna Rabbi Ṭarfon in a baraita is pseudoepigraphic, based upon Rabbi Ṭarfon's teaching regarding the recitation of Hallel ha-Gadol in Mishnah Ta'anit 3:9. A special appendix is devoted to Levinsohn's separate study on zugot in the ancient and medieval world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Christian history the celebration of the Supper has always represented one of the most important moments of man’s communion with God. This article retraces a historical path from the institution of the Passover, the new meaning given by Jesus, the continuity in the emergence of the Church, its mention in the Didache, the ratification given in the Protestant Reformation and the Westminster Confession. The second part of the text places us at a time when humanity faces a serious pandemic, which imposed a rigid social distance, and the increase in the use of new technologies and virtual resources in different areas of society, which causes rapid transformations and, consequently, some tensions. In the context of evangelical, a question arises about the format of the celebration of the Supper in this exceptional scenario. Would it be possible to validate the realization of this traditional Christian celebration in the virtual format, without the physical presence of the participant in their faith community? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Passover Cup of Elijah is often explained as an expression of rabbinic uncertainty regarding a fifth cup mandated by some opinions in the Babylonian Talmud. The explanation is based upon other talmudic passages which mention halakhic uncertainties that will be resolved by Elijah when he eventually comes to herald the long anticipated redemption. The explanation is commonly attributed to the Gaon of Vilna; however, no historically reliable source supports this attribution. This explanation was first published by the great maskil, Isaac Ber Levinsohn, and was attributed to the Gaon of Vilna by Eliezer Zweifel. An alternate shift of attribution was to R. Ephraim Zalman Margolioth. Attribution to a great rabbinic authority helped the explanation gain circulation and approval among the general rabbinic audience to the present day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The supper was inaugurated in a time of rupture and transition. Jesus celebrated the last passover and announced a new exodus, the salvation of the new Israel of God where he was the paschal lamb. The passover became supper, the firstborn of the Egyptians who died on the first passover came to be understood in the death of God's firstborn. Since then, the Christian supper began to have meanings like presence, communion, joy, welcome, celebration and waiting for the Lord's return. The Supper tends to be disfigured when its emphasis happens to be the location, shape and ethical requirements placed on the participants as being more important than the presence of the Lord. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The revelation of the truth about God by the Embodied Son has been dealt with by many theologians in the history of Christianity. But the theses presented here by Joseph Ratzinger - Benedict XVI - the Father seen through the 'tearing of the veil' of his Son - interpreted in terms of the latest theological and cultural challenges, are original and unique against the background of systematic theology of the last hundred years. This theological cognition is methodologically closely linked to the following of Jesus. It emphasises the inseparable and mutual dependence of scientific theology on Christian praxis, Christological hermeneutics on the existential attitude of faith. Intellectual and spiritual understanding of the mystery of Jesus depends on intimacy with Him and develops along this path: only the Son can show the Father because He knows Him in a way that defines His existence as Son. Intra-Trinitarian conversation with the Father - the prayer of the Son, His sonship-obedience finds its physical expression in history, and the humanity of Jesus, whose culmination is the Cross, remains His prayer. The earthly life and the Passover of Jesus introduce the experience of a loving Father, into the human vague concept of God, thus making the course of history definitively meaningful and fulfilled, and faith legitimate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to offer the first detailed exposition and analysis of the two major writings of Markus Barth on the theme of the Lord's Supper, highlighting matters of scriptural exegesis and considering issues of theological import as well as noting its ecumenical implications. It proceeds in three main sections. First, it sets the scene for the investigation of Markus Barth's work on the Lord's Supper by considering briefly the genre and the purpose of the writings in view. Second, it engages in a close reading and analysis of both writings on the Lord's Supper. Third, and by way of conclusion, it concisely explores the wider ramifications of Barth's teaching in relation to the work of the ecumenical movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are many doubts regarding the place the children of believers should have in the church of Christ. Are they members of the church? If so, should they be admitted to the church's sacraments? For what reason, in most churches of paedobaptist theology and practice, the children of believing parents are not admitted to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper? The author of the present article proposes to examine the issue of paedocommunion in the history of the church, the Reformed tradition, and the Holy Scriptures, in order to argue against the participation of children in the sacrament of communion. He begins with a brief presentation of a theological current characteristic of North American Presbyterianism, the Federal Vision, which has already begun to make its effects felt in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The provenance of the opening Aramaic portion of the Passover Haggadah has confounded practitioners and scholars for centuries. Little evidence has come to light to explain the origins of this passage or the fluctuations in its attending practices over time. This article argues that additional evidence, found in some neglected Talmudic manuscripts and in incantation bowls, reveals that the core recitational and practical elements of this passage were originally unrelated to Passover or Jewish ritual. Instead, they were part of a recognised social script in late antique Jewish Babylonia that was integrated into the Passover Haggadah. With changes in Babylonian Jewish society, and with the transmission of this section and its associated practices to Jewish communities outside of Babylonia, the original social and cultural context of this sentence was forgotten. Untethered from the setting in which it was culturally legible, it developed through encounters with new actors in different contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Synoptics narrate a single Passover during Jesus' ministry, whereas John's Gospel spans three Passovers. The Diatessaron harmonised the Four Gospels, but previous scholarship has misapprehended Tatian's chronology of Jesus' ministry. The Diatessaron included all the Johannine festivals, but Tatian rearranged the order of events. Distinctively resolving a significant disagreement between John and the Synoptics, Tatian innovated a narrative sequence wherein Jesus' temple disruption occurs at the second of three Passovers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Merchant of Venice contains a puzzling passage by Lancelot Gobbo that refers to Ash Wednesday and Easter Monday, two dates in the Christian religious calendar. The passage is nonsensical, yet it is a commonplace that the utterances of Shakespeare's clowns are often noteworthy. This paper notes that Lancelot refers to an unusual four-fold coincidence of Passover with Easter Monday, the former on the correct Gregorian calendar, the latter on the outdated Julian calendar. The interpretation is tested and leads to the determination of the dramatic time of the play which with other evidence from the script suggests that the paschal moon of 14 Nisan 5357 (April 2, 1597) is a crux of the play. The resulting timeline is consistent with events in the script and leads to a new interpretation for Old Gobbo's dish of doves. The timeline leads also to a solution for a question on equity and the law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the theme of Jewish identity in the context of Passover. Topics include the personal significance of identifying with the Exodus from Egypt, the evolving nature of bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies as markers of Jewish identity, and historical choices faced by Jews, such as during the 1392 Castile and Aragon crisis and the Bar Kokhba rebellion.

The article provides a critique of the 2002 article "Timing and Music," by Stuart Albert and Geoffrey Bell, regarding the use of temporal sequences to find useful ways of understanding organizational timing. The article attempts to musically map the standoff in Waco, Texas between the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and religious leader David Koresh in a way differing from that of Albert and Bell. The article discusses the importance of tension and release in the musical mapping of the incident, and states that it is an important detail that Koresh and his followers celebrated the Passover holiday.

It is the thesis of this article that a secular form of the biblical Exodus pattern is used by Woody Allen in his Broadway Danny Rose. In the history of the Bible, and its interpretation, the Exodus pattern is again and again used as a model for inspiration: from oppression to deliverance. It was an important source of both argument and symbolism during the American Revolution. It was used by the Boer nationalists fighting the British Empire and it comes to life in the hand of liberation theology in South America. The use of this pattern and its use during the seder meal is to be taken loosely here: Exodus is not a theory, but a story, a “Big Story” that became part of the cultural consciousness of the West and quite a few other parts of the world. Although the Exodus story is in the first place an account of deliverance or liberation in a religious context and framework, in Broadway Danny Rose it is used as a moral device about how to survive in the modern wilderness.

This research is due to social phenomenon in Indoensia lately, where tendention of nationalism is decreasing. Church, which is being a part of this nation component, has responsibility to build its people’s sense of nationalism, not mere making them as heavenly citizen. The aim of this article is to point out a biblical study about Passover celebration at the first time in The Old Testament, which constituted a commemoration of Israel nationality deliverance from the bondage of Egypt, what was to become an implication of Jesus’ death and resurrection event. It uses a historical analysis on biblical text Exodus 12:1-51 with exposition approach for acquiring an event implication in Old Testament theology context. After reading the whole text in the passage, considering its context and genre, then reconstruct its narrative and analyze it, so the conclusion is, that Passover celebration in the first time is God’s action to deliver Israel as a nation from Egypt. The research finding is to recommend that Passover celebration in future will be able to increase church’s sense of nationality in Indonesia context. Artikel ini adalah sebuah penelitian yang berkaitan dengan fenomenologi sosial di Indonesia dewasa ini, di mana kecenderungan memupusnya sikap nasionalisme anak bangsa. Gereja Tuhan sebagai bagian dari komponen bangsa ini memiliki tanggung jawab untuk membangun rasa nasionalisme umat, tidak hanya sekadar menjadikannya warga surga seperti idealisme teologi. Tujuan artikel ini untuk menunjukkan kajian biblikal tentang perayaan Paskah yang secara asali merupakan peringatan tentang perjuangan pembebasan Israel sebagai sebuah bangsa, yang di kemudian hari memberikan implikasi teologis pada peristiwa kematian dan kebangkitan Kristus. Metode yang digunakan adalah analisis historis pada teks Keluaran 12:1-51 dengan pendekatan eksposisi, untuk mendapatkan implikasi peristiwa dalam konteks teologi Perjanjian Lama. Setelah membaca teks secara keseluruhan, lalu memperhatikan konteks dan genre sastera, merekonstruksi narasi teks dan menganalisisnya, maka disimpulkan bahwa pada awalnya peristiwa Paskah merupakan perbuatan ilahi untuk membebaskan Israel dari penjajahan Mesir. Temuan pembahasan dan simpulan merekomendasikan agar momentum perayaan Paskah dapat meningkatkan rasa nasionalisme gereja dalam konteks Indonesia.

The celebration of the Passover of the Enoochite Quatradecimans during the first three centuries of Christianity. Development concerning the determination of Passover or Pascha’s annual date took place during the first three centuries of Christianity. This led to a controversy in the mid-second century AD which became known as the Quartadecima Controversy. The date and duration of the Passover were the main issues. During the controversy two main streams emerged, namely the Quartadecimans and Anti-Quartadecimans. The Quartadecimans celebrated the 14th of the first month annually as the commencement date of the Passover. The Anti-Quartadecimans set the first or second weekend after the 14th of the first month annually as the Passover celebration date. In spite of the two main streams, commonly accepted by modern-day researchers, various variations developed within these two main streams. These variations have not been discerned and analysed in modern-day research. One of these variations, namely the Enochite Quatradecimans is the subject of this article. They are being portrayed as a unique and discernable variation within the Quartadeciman main stream. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article connects the research fields of New Testament and Church History in trying to understand how and when the Passover was celebrated during the first three centuries of Christianity.

The work studies the struggle of one particular type of egalitarian societal model against inequality. The model is the covenantal societal type; we describe its attributes, we follow four incarnations of the model and study their conflicts with powerful hierarchical rivals. The four embodiments of the covenantal societal type investigated in this work are: 1. Ancient Israel 2. Christianity in the Western Roman Empire of the fourth century 3. The Waldensian communities in the Alps of the 13th century 4. The Romanian communities of the Carpathian Valleys -- from antiquity to current times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article focuses on the quantitative and qualitative weight of the Hebrew-Aramaic (HA) component in Judeo-Spanish (JS) by examining three characteristics of language usage: 1. linguistic features of HA words: morphological—nouns vs. other categories (e.g., mazál 'luck.N' vs. maxamá 'because of.PREP'); semantic—HA words and phrases related to Jewish religious concepts as opposed to other HA words and phrases (e.g., rošaná 'New Year' vs. xavér 'friend, partner'), and syntactic. 2. The HA inventory in JS: which sources and texts produced HA words and expressions used in JS (e.g., the Passover Haggadah)? 3. The actual distribution of the HA component as it appears in various sociolinguistic circumstances and literary texts (e.g., male vs. female, spoken vs. written, Halakhic vs. non-Halakhic). These characteristics suggest a hierarchy of factors that influence the quantity and quality of the HA component in JS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paschal prescription in Exodus 12.3-6—attributed to the Priestly Source—that requires the Israelites to keep an animal four days prior to slaughtering it is an enigmatic episode unparalleled in other biblical accounts of Passover. Modern discussions often disregard the prescription as a faux rite created through textual harmonization of apparently disparate dating traditions for Passover. This discussion demonstrates that compositional approaches to explaining the rite are unsatisfactory and attempts rather to approach the rite phenomenologically—even if the phenomenon only existed in the imagination of the Priestly writer. With a nuanced understanding of the language used to describe the rite and the correspondence of the Passover-of-Egypt with the Priestly system of Tabernacle sacrifice, the study shows that the four-day detainment of the animal is an intentionally crafted device used to approximate in a pre-Tabernacle environment the mediation between sacred and profane that would later be guarded by priests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Passover festival has been the ritual expression of Jewish cultural identity ever since the Old Testament got the form it has today. This article looks at the ways cultural identity was expressed in antiquity, critiques the traditional prioritising of the story of exodus over its biblical ritual expression in understanding ancient Jewish identity and explores various Pesah sacrifice instructions in Exodus 12 as an implicit polemical ritual discourse engaged in constructing a ritual of cultural distinction. The article pays close attention to the tension between the invented and the real of the instructions, and attempts to identify the possible cultural other against whom some of the Exodus instructions were constructed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rabbi Abraham Danzig (1748-1820) was a leading posek in his day and wrote a number of authoritative legal works, including his two editions of the Haye Adam (1810 and 1818, respectively). His treatment of customs (minhagim) is of specific historical and contemporary interest. This discussion centers on one particular tradition, the prohibition against the Ashkenazi Jews to eat legumes (kitniyot) on Passover. Only the second edition of Haye Adam contains a chapter (klal) entitled "The Law of Things that are Prohibited because of Custom" and it is here that the topic of customs is greatly elaborated upon. The case of kitniyot exemplifies Rabbi Danzig's understanding of minhag which motivated him to present an extended section on the laws of custom. This issue of kitniyot on Passover is, I suggest, an illustration of an exercise in rabbinical authority. The Haskalah and Reform movements of the eighteenth century constantly sought to contest rabbinical authority either explicitly or implicitly. The question can be posed: if there had been no opposition to the eating of legumes on Passover by groups opposing and challenging rabbinical authority would the rabbis have objected so vehemently? The non-Orthodox streams of Judaism challenged the prohibition of kitniyot (and with the contemporary reality in the State of Israel, where a majority of Sephardic Jews are permitted to eat legumes on Passover, and with the reasons for prohibition by the early rabbinical authorities no longer relevant today). Reality and conflict have once again impelled the rabbinic establishment to defend its authority. Based on Danzig's approach, I conclude that the prohibition not to eat kitniyot on Passover, a religious custom, has been positioned within the codified laws of Passover with all their full authority, and no room for flexibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]